Maximizing exposure

Last month, communications expert and FLW Tour show producer Jerry McKinnis provided some valuable advice about exposure. This month's column features two anglers who have heeded that advice and launched fishing careers by making the most of exposure opportunities.

The bottom line in the fishing industry is a game of balance. In the sponsor market, fishing ability is meaningless without well-spoken delivery and presence; however, great speakers are worthless without a solid fishing performance record that commands credibility. Anglers who are sharp enough to enhance a respectable fishing performance with efficient communication are the ones who get sponsor contracts.

David Walker, 35, of Cannon, Ky., and Marty Stone, 35, of Linden, N.C., are anglers who have demonstrated an ability to turn their catches into commodities. Both anglers boast a tournament fishing record that is hard to deny as credible. Walker has made 10 top-10 appearances since joining the FLW Tour in 1996. Stone, who began fishing FLW events in 1997, has seven top-10 finishes. To add to their fishing credentials, Walker won Kellogg's Angler of the Year on the FLW Tour in 1999 and Stone has claimed a B.A.S.S. Top 150 victory.

Five years ago, the names David Walker and Marty Stone would have brought blank stares from most guys at a bass club meeting. Today, they are household names on bass fishing's most elite tours.

Both anglers have used the unique FLW format to jump-start their fishing careers. Long before they had paying sponsors, they recognized the value of stage and film exposure offered by the FLW Tour and took advantage of those opportunities. Demonstrating an ability to speak well during those first impressions paid dividends when these anglers sat down at a sponsor's dealing table.

What Walker and Stone have in common is an ability to describe fishing in a language both non-fishermen and fishermen can understand. In doing so, they have captured two audiences.

Both anglers avoid long-winded technical orations littered with fancy fishing jargon. They are not blatant product pushers; consequently, their fishing does not sound like an infomercial. They do not attribute their catches to dumb luck or happenstance.

Instead, these two effective communicators talk about the importance of strategy, decisions, lure choices, weather circumstances and other variables that affect their catch. As a result, their fishing has merit and legitimacy. Bass fishing becomes a clever craft of their own design and that is what gives their activity value to sponsors.

Stone and Walker claim that developing speaking skills in front of crowds and cameras is not something that comes with ease. Both anglers have worked hard to enhance their presentation styles.

Marty Stone admits to being terrified of crowds at one time, but he sent his stage fright packing when he was forced to speak in front of crowds during college. Stone, who has a degree in public recreation and park management with a minor in communication, says that presentations were part of his studies. After 20 major presentations, public speaking had become second nature.

Stone also has a personal presentations coach who critiques his moves - Robin Stone, his wife. Robin Stone has a degree in communication with a minor in media advertising. Since 1997, the Stones have watched Marty's camera performances repeatedly to find areas that he could improve on when speaking on stage or camera.

"She has helped me a tremendous amount with my delivery," admits Stone. "She is very objective about my actions and the signals they send."

Stone also pays particular attention to his autograph-signing interactions.

"To have some one ask you for an autograph is the greatest compliment in the world," says Stone. "As pro anglers we should be respectful and humbled by autograph seekers. That is what separates our sports from all others, one-on-one interaction with fans."

Stone believes the fear of public speaking can be overcome with practice. He recommends that anglers, who are serious about pursuing sponsorship, but are afraid of public speaking, seek out community college courses in public speaking.

While college experience is becoming highly favored among sponsors, it is by no means mandatory. David Walker has received his public speaking education through a hands-on training program, not a college classroom. Walker says being a camera boat driver whenever possible during the FLW Tour's early years made him a quick study on the art of presentation.

"Being around Jerry McKinnis and his camera crews has taught me an incredible amount about the importance of appearance and presence," says Walker. "When you watch a guy fish all day (as a camera boat driver) and then see what ends up on film, you start to get a feel for what effective communication is about."

Walker has also been a student at the weigh-ins and has made meticulous mental notes of how the crowd responds to each angler's comments.

"I like to watch the weigh-ins to see how the anglers present themselves and how the crowd responds," he says. "You would not believe how many of the same goofy catch phrases and one liners are said over and over again. Watching the crowd's responses to such comments taught Walker to avoid them and develop his own style and tone.

"I just answer the questions honestly and directly," comments Walker. "If I catch a big string and want to keep it quiet, I just say I do not want to disclose a location or a bait, instead of telling some gimmicky lie everybody else has heard a thousand times that day."

If you are serious about your bottom line, take a page out of the notebooks of David Walker and Marty Stone. Find creative ways to turn the smallest exposures into positive impressions.

Rob Newell is a freelance outdoor writer from Tallahassee, Fla. He has been actively involved in tournament bass fishing and the professional bass fishing industry, both as participant and a writer, for more than 10 years. He currently fishes as a co-angler on the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and contributes to OperationBass.com, Bass Fishing and other fishing publications.

Top 10 Patterns from Lewis Smith

The Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Evinrude on Lewis Smith Lake featured a mishmash of springtime patterns that ranged from targeting bass feeding on blueback herring to catching spawning fish to dropping in on deep schools of spotted bass. Here’s a breakdown of the patterns of the top 10 pros. READ MORE »

March 29, 2015

Lefebre Lands on Top

He left the dock this morning in 7th place, eight and a half pounds off the lead. And when he returned this afternoon, Dave Lefebre shocked the weigh-in crowd with a come-from-behind Walmart FLW Tour win that left his competitors shell-shocked. READ MORE »

March 29, 2015

Birge Buzzes Ahead

Today started off with a slightly miserable 31-degree air temperature, but it didn’t take long for the top 20 pros to really heat up on Lewis Smith Lake at the second stop of the 2015 Walmart FLW Tour presented by Evinrude. Reports poured in throughout the day of big bass – especially big largemouths – being caught off beds. It looked at first as if one of the “largemouth lookers” might piece together a big enough bag to snatch the lead away from Oklahoma rookie Zack Birge, who struggled early to make his shallow topwater pattern work. Unfortunately for the rest of the field, the young gun Birge has the coolness and patience of a veteran, and he stuck with his game plan of throwing a buzzbait and soft jerkbait rig until the sun had time to warm the shallows and spur the fish to become more active.
Birge tallied 17 pounds, 11 ounces today, raising his three-day total to 54-8 and giving him a lead of 3-11 over Texas veteran Clark Wendlandt in second place. READ MORE »

March 29, 2015

Top 5 Patterns from Lewis Smith Day 3

After three days, it looks as if tournament leader Zack Birge has the quality largemouth bite in the bushes wired. But behind him on the leaderboard are nine pros doing everything from sight-fishing to catching schooling bass and everything in between.
Even with all the patterns in play, few have fizzled. The sight-fishers have reported finding new bedders, the schoolers are still schooling and a couple of guys have even started tapping floating docks. READ MORE »

March 28, 2015

Top 5 Patterns from Lewis Smith Day 2

While air and water temperatures plummeted on day two of the Walmart FLW Tour event on Lewis Smith Lake presented by Evinrude, the big surprise came in the stability of the fishing patterns amidst such change. Zack Birge found plenty of production on his primary pattern to send him to the top of the leaderboard, and those under him held true to their patterns as well to secure a ticket to day three’s top 20.
Among the biggest surprises was the number of pros who were still able to pluck fish off beds. Most pros that were sight-fishing say the bass are committed to beds and that the cold snap will not run them off at this point in time. Despite the cold, some even found new fish on beds that were not there yesterday. READ MORE »

March 27, 2015

Benton Blasts 20-12 on Lewis Smith

Panama City, Fla., pro Drew Benton jumped into the early lead at the Walmart FLW Tour event on Lewis Smith Lake presented by Evinrude with a five-bass limit weighing 20 pounds, 12 ounces. Benton caught a mix of largemouths and spotted bass, and revealed that both black bass species are spawning. He leads a tight top 20 that includes 18 pros that caught more than 15 pounds each. The first day was an absolute fish-fest. Of the 154 pros fishing this tournament, 138 weighed limits.
Brad Roberts of Faubush, Ky., has a 2-ounce lead in the co-angler division with a 13-pound, 4-ounce limit. Tomorrow he’ll try to defend his lead on the final day of co-angler competition. READ MORE »

March 27, 2015

Top 5 Patterns from Lewis Smith Day 1

While Drew Benton was busy bugging bedding fish for his day-one tournament lead, several others behind him were scoring big with other fishing options on Lewis Smith Lake. Sight-fishing also played a role in the top limits produce by Tracy Adams, Scott Martin and Ish Monroe, but Clayton Batts and Zack Birge both brought in big bags with other patterns.
Click here to read about Benton’s day-one performance at the second Walmart FLW Tour event of 2015, which is presented by Evinrude. Here’s how the rest of the top five got it done. READ MORE »

March 10, 2015

Top 10 Patterns from Toho

At the halfway point of the Walmart FLW Tour event on Lake Toho on Friday afternoon, it looked as if the event would be a JT Kenney runaway win. Kenney’s “red-dot” bedding program appeared to be unstoppable.
But then things changed drastically: The warm-up ended, the full moon began to wane, heavy clouds took up residence over central Florida and the fairy tale of scripted plans in a multiple-day tournament came to a screeching halt.
By the end of the event, several other patterns on Lake Toho quickly closed up Kenney’s seemingly insurmountable lead (12-10 after two days and 12-8 after three). When the final weigh-in came to an end, the top three places were only separated by 1 pound, 5 ounces. Patterns that involved current, shell beds and even docks helped close the gap. Here’s a look at some of the other top 10 patterns from the week. READ MORE »

March 9, 2015

Kenney Connects the Dots

Mercury pro JT Kenney was as confident as he could be early in the week at the Walmart FLW Tour season-opener on Lake Toho. He had an incredibly refined plan built on a series of precisely placed waypoints. The waypoints marked isolated spawning areas within beds of lily pads.
In the first two days of competition, Kenney looked unstoppable with limits weighing 29-14 and 22-9, respectively, to build a lead of 12-10. On day three, Kenney looked human. His limit of 14-5 could have left the door open – but after weigh-in Kenney’s lead shrank by only 2 ounces.
And today, it looked as if the king, despite a massive lead, was about to give up his crown. Kenney weighed in only 9 pounds, 4 ounces. But that was enough.
The Florida pro squeezed through by an 11-ounce winning margin to win the first Tour event of 2015. READ MORE »

March 8, 2015

Kenney on Cruise Control

For those who don’t believe that professional fishing is a game of offense and defense like any other sport, consider JT Kenney’s strategy for the last three days of the Walmart FLW Tour event on Lake Toho presented by Mercury. The first two days, Kenney ran pure “offensive plays” on key, precise bedding areas to run up the score. Today, he ran more “defensive plays” to protect his lead. READ MORE »

March 8, 2015

Top 5 Patterns from Toho Day 3

When the Walmart FLW Tour event started at Lake Toho on Thursday, the story lines were all about spawning fish and catching bedding bass by working soft-plastic baits around isolated pad clumps. Today, the buzzwords changed to current, shell beds and reaction baits such as spinnerbaits and lipless rattlers.
The change in vernacular is associated primarily with the weather. While a warm, balmy day one allowed leading pros to score big by blind bed-fishing, today’s lower temperatures, nippy northeast winds and dull gray skies caused a significant shift in productive tactics that led to a shakeup on the leaderboard.
As already revealed, leader JT Kenney had to resort to a spinnerbait to adapt. Others in the top 10 have found consistency in the currents of the Kissimmee River or have adapted with new baits. READ MORE »

March 7, 2015

Kenney Crushing the Field

Day two of the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Mercury on Lake Toho saw JT Kenney extend his lead to 12 pounds, 10 ounces over second-place pro Stacey King with a 22-9 limit.
Kenney has lived near Toho for some time and prepared meticulously for this event – it appears to be paying off. Fishing in Kissimmee all day, he managed another strong bag on a day when weather changes caused many in the top of the ranks to stumble.
READ MORE »

March 7, 2015

Top 5 Patterns from Toho Day 2

At halftime in the Walmart FLW Tour event on Lake Toho presented by Mercury, it’s looking like it could be a runaway by tournament leader JT Kenney. Of course, it’s bass fishing and anything can happen, but the latest frontal system rolling through Florida seems to have certainly stymied the bed-fish bonanza that many expected. As a result, the most productive areas from the last two days have been beat down by fishing pressure and are not recovering or replenishing very well.
Here’s a look at how the rest of the top finishers managed to overcome challenging conditions on day two to stay at least within striking range of the leader. READ MORE »

March 6, 2015

JT Tees Off

There was fuel, and there was flame.
The fuel was in the form of a delayed largemouth bass spawn on Lake Toho that had been pushed back for several weeks due to low water temperatures and high water flows through the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. The biological clocks of Toho’s bass have been ticking, so to speak.
The flame was in the form of a fast warm-up over the last three days, a full moon occurring right now and water temperatures rising nearly 10 degrees in the last 72 hours.
At the day-one takeoff of the Walmart FLW Tour event presented by Mercury this morning, everyone held his breath for the combustion that was about to occur.
And when fuel met flame there were a few fiery flare-ups, but not of the size that many expected.
In all, the 20-pound mark was reached by seven anglers on a warm, balmy day that had five-alarmer written all over it.
Exactly why the bite was not as good as expected is still in question. Many pros reported a vanishing act of bedding bass that had just started to show up during practice, but have now disappeared despite highly favorable conditions
At the top of the standings are Florida ace JT Kenney and Missouri veteran Stacey King, who checked in with 29-14 and 28-1, respectively. READ MORE »

March 6, 2015

Top 5 Patterns from Toho Day 1

Lake Kissimmee produced the bulk of the top-10 catches on the first day of competition, but not all of them. Still, it seems that anglers believe the time lost to traveling through the lock from Toho to eventually get to Kissimmee is worth the gamble. READ MORE »

March 2, 2015

Toho’s Mojo

Rob Newell breaks down the Kissimmee Chain lake by lake for a complete preview of the Walmart FLW Tour event on Lake Toho. READ MORE »

October 5, 2014

Cifuentes wins Co-angler Title

ZAVALLA, Texas – Imagine traveling FLW Outdoor’s fishing circuits as a co-angler with legendary pro Larry Nixon…practicing with him…rooming with him…and just talking bass fishing 24-7 with one of the most decorated bass fishing pros in the modern world. READ MORE »